Page 55 of The Breeding Cave
“Alana,” he said, “I’m not playing.”
“Look, I don’t have any more money.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Dragon Clan,” I clarified. “You’re their leader, aren’t you? Is that what this is about?”
While I didn’t trust him, I needed to play stupid for a bit longer until I could get to work or to the penthouse. Anything to stall him, anything to get somewhere safe so he couldn’t steal me away for whatever he was planning.
Alvin’s soft expression was replaced with a small, twitching smirk. “They said that?”
“I don’t understand why,” I said. “You were indebted to them.”
“Yeah, that’s what it was,” he said. “Listen, I can make all your problems disappear.”
“You can get them to stop asking me for money?”
“Yes.”
“What do I have to do?”
Alvin nodded to his car parked at the corner. “Come with me.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and really wished I had listened to Molly and the beast this morning. I didn’t have time to deal with him, nor did I have the energy. The Dragon Clan was after me, and they … they were really dragons, weren’t they?
My body was covered in burns because of them.
“I have my hands full.” I gestured to my coffee cups. “Can this wait?”
“No.”
“What do you need to tell me?” I asked. “Can’t you tell me here?”
“I don’t need to tell you anything,” he said.
“Then why do you need me?”
He snapped his hand around my upper arm and yanked me closer to him until he was basically breathing down my neck. “Get in the fucking car, Alana, and stop asking stupid questions like you always do.”
My heart pounded so hard that I could hear it in my ears. “No.”
Damn, I am so screwed!
A low chuckle escaped his throat, and he yanked me even closer. “I don’t think you he?—”
“I did hear you, and I said no.”
“She was very clear,” a familiar voice said behind me.
When I turned around, Gideon—one of the regulars that I’d had at Pink Ivory—stepped between me and Alvin. Gideon had always been nice to me and not grumpy, like Luciano, but there was something about him that told me he could snap a man’s head clean off his shoulders and go about his day without remorse.
And thank God that he was here! His usual time too.
“Everything okay here, Alana?” he asked.
Alvin released my arm and took a couple of steps back. “We’re good.”
“I just need to get to work,” I said, eyeing Alvin.
